A Different Perspective
by GoldenGlobbe
Summary: In another world where Meredith's mother never got diagnosed with alzheimer's. Inspiration from the episode If/Then.


_Hey everyone... _

_Well, I had one story before this and it didn't go well. I am new to Grey's Anatomy FanFiction. I want a fresh start and that is why I deleted my previous story and I am starting this one. I will take suggestions on how to improve my writing. And if I need to, I will get a Beta Reader. Okay?_

_Anyways, remember the episode If/Then? Well, that is where I got my inspiration to start writing this. Meredith's mother never got diagnosed with Alzheimer's, but Ellis and Richard never got married. Alex won't be the nerdy kid with glasses as he was in the episode. He will be the same old Alex we all love. Cristina will still be her best friend because of how driven Meredith is._

_April and Jackson will eventually come. Meredith and Derek will eventually come together, but that won't be the whole plotline. Lexie becoming an orphan? I am not going to create her to be an orphan. Even though that would a quite interesting hospital visit._

_Each chapter will resemble each episode in order. _

_Disclaimer: I do not own Grey's Anatomy._

* * *

Meredith Grey came walking down the stairs of her mother's house. It was earlier than any other intern might be up, but having Ellis Grey as a mother, you are going to be up this early. As she entered the kitchen, she saw her mother pouring coffee into a disposable cup. One of Ellis Grey's everyday routine. Ellis started at Seattle Grace as an attending gastroenterology surgeon a few months ago. She wanted to get to know the hospital again before her daughter started her internship.

Meredith walked up to the coffee machine and poured herself a cup of coffee, just like her mother.

"Hey mom." Meredith put down the pot holder and turned to look at her mother, who was giving Meredith a slight glare.

Ellis sighed, "Meredith, you will never be respected as a surgeon if you say 'Hey'. Be more professional and say "Hello mother'. You will earn more respect from your fellow interns, residents, and maybe even some attendings might show you respect. Learn how to use professional language. Lord knows I have been teaching it to you your entire life."

Meredith nodded, "Alright."

Ellis gave a small smile before packing up her briefcase and telling Meredith, "I have to go. I need to get to the hospital. I assume I will see around the hospital. Good day, Meredith."

"Good day, mother." Meredith said as she watched her mom walk out the front door. She waited to hear her mother's car start before she walked over to the dining room table. She pulled out a chair and slumped down in it praying for more sleep. Even though she knew she wasn't going to get any for the next 48 hours.

She was dressed and already had everything ready to leave. So she sat the table, with her head down and waited to hear the alarm telling her it was time to go to work.

Within a few minutes, darkness went through her, granting her sleep.

Meredith jerked awake at the sound of her alarm going off. She grabbed her phone and shut off the alarm. Then she got out of the chair and went to the mirror she had in her living room and fixed her hair, which was a complete mess. She quickly checked the rest of her face to see if any of her make-up smeared and when she was satisfied with how she looked, she grabbed her purse and her bag that held all of the things she needed as an intern. As she left through the front door, she locked it and then got in her car and drove to Seattle Grace Hospital.

When she opened up the door to the interns locker room, she saw that there were a few people already there and getting changed. Meredith walked over to her locker, opened it up, and put her bag in her locker. She sat down on the bench and stared at her locker. It was now hitting her that she was an intern at the number one teaching hospital, where her mother also worked at.

She didn't come out of her daze for a while. She finally came out of it as a light-skinned girl stood next to her, opening up her locker. Meredith vaguely remembers her. All that she remembers is that her name is Cristina.

Meredith stood up and started to put her light blue intern scrubs on. She put the light blue shirt on over her long-sleeve white shirt and slid on the light blue pants on. She quickly stuffed the clothes she was previously wearing into her locker. As she was putting on her tennis shoes, she lifted her up head to Cristina and said, "Hey, you're Cristina right?"

Cristina looks at her then asks, "What resident are assigned too? I've got Bailey.

"The Nazi? I have her too. But I doubt she should be that bad. I know worse people." Meredith remarked. She quickly put on her other tennis shoe and sat down on the bench. She grabbed her white coat, slid it on and put her stethoscope around her neck before looking back up at Cristina.

Cristina scoffed, "Oh? Like who?"

Meredith groaned and gave her a slight glare. "Try my mother for example."

"Your mother? Trying having a mother who disapproves of your profession and thinks you should focus on getting married."

Meredith gave a smirk, knowing she was going to win this little game she had started with Cristina. "Well, you don't have a mother who-"

She got cut off at the sound of Dr. Bailey yelling, "Yang, Stevens, O'Malley, and Grey. You're with me."

Cristina looks at Meredith. "I forgot to ask for your name. A little unfair that you know mine and I don't know yours."

"I would tell you mine, but you would envy me. A lot of people envy me, even though I don't know why. I would kill to be in another person's shoes right now." Meredith said, running out the door to catch up to her other fellow interns and her resident.

As Meredith approached, Bailey was saying, "I have five rules. Memorize them. Rule number 1, don't bother sucking up. I already hate you. That's not going to change." Bailey turned around and pointed to the papers and to the pagers and said, "Trauma protocol, phone lists and pagers. Nurses will page you. You will answer every page at a run. A run, that is rule number 2. Your first shift starts now and lasts 48 hours."

Bailey started walking out the doors to go onto the catwalk. "You're interns, grunts, nobodies. You are at the bottom of the surgical food chain. You run labs, write orders, work every second until you drop. And don't complain."

The four interns followed Bailey as she reached a door. She opened it up and said, "On-call rooms. Attending's hog them. Sleep where you can, when you can. This brings me to rule number 3, if I am sleeping, don't wake me unless your patient is actually dying. Rule number 4, the dying patient better not be dead when I get there because not only have you killed someone, you woke me up for no good reason. We clear?"

As the rest of the interns nodded, Meredith raised her hand.

"Yes?" Bailey said when she noticed her hand.

"You said five rules. That was only four." Meredith said as Bailey's pager went off.

Bailey quickly looked at it before saying, "Rule number five, when I move, you move."

Bailey squeezed through them and turned to go down a hallway. As she did, she yelled, "Get out of my way."

Meredith and the other interns followed Bailey to the roof where they saw a helicopter land on the helipad. As they were running up there, Bailey grabbed a gurney and handed it to Cristina and O'Malley. They brought it other to the door waiting for the paramedics to open it and put their patient on the gurney.

The door to the helicopter flew open. The paramedic started to tell Bailey the information about the patient. "Katie Bryce, 15 year old female. Two on-set seizures, intermit for the past week. Started to grand mal seize as we descended."

"Alright, let's get her on her side." Bailey said as they entered a free hospital room.

The interns did just that. They worked together to get Katie Bryce on her side to help the seizer she was having. Once they got Katie to her side, the interns looked back at Bailey, wondering what they should do next.

Bailey quickly looked at Izzy and said, "Uh, Izzy. 10 milligrams of diazepam."

She then looked to Meredith. "No no. The white one is on the right. Righty whitey. Smoke over fire." Then to O'Malley. Large-bore ivy. Don't let the blood hemolyze. Let's go!"

As Meredith was holding Katie to her side, Izzy was trying to get the needle into her arm, but couldn't because of her moving. Not a second later, Katie stopped seizing. Just as she did, Chief of Cardiothoracic, Preston Burke walked into the room.

"I heard we had a wet fish on dry land."

Bailey looked up at Burke. "Absolutely Dr. Burke."

Burke quickly looked at the chart. He scanned it before turning to Bailey. "Alright Dr. Bailey, shotgun."

She nodded to Burke as he left the room. "Alright people. You heard him. That means every test in the book." Bailey began telling off a few tests they have to run before telling each intern their responsibility.

"Cristina, you're on labs. George, patient work up. Meredith get her up for a CT. She is your responsibility now."

Bailey was walking out the door when Izzy raised her voice a little to ask, "What about me Dr. Bailey?"

"Honey, you get to do rectal exams."

With that, Bailey was gone and the interns were left by themselves. Meredith was starting to get her hospital bed ready to get to the CT room. As Cristina was taking blood from Katie, she looked up at Meredith.

"Alright, so I know your first name now. Meredith. Last name?"

"Meredith Grey. Your last name?"

Cristina took out to needle she had in Katie's arm and looked at Meredith in shock. As did George O'Malley. Meredith gave a small laugh. "See? This is why I don't usually tell people my full name. I either get shocked faces from people who don't know me. And the people who do know me and know my mother, they always tell me my mother is a bitch."

"You're Meredith Grey? As in Ellis Grey's daughter, Meredith Grey?" George asked.

"I think we just established that O'Malley. But seriously? What you said earlier in the locker room. I would kill to be in your place. Having a mother like that must have been amazing."

Meredith scoffed at Cristina's statement. "Having a mother like her would be amazing? No. Not at all. After my father left her, she had an affair with this married guy. But when he broke it off with her, she lost it. She was never the same. And don't tell anyone I told you that! Especially my mother."

"Alright, alright."

After Cristina left, Meredith was close behind her ready to bring Katie up for her CT. She pushed the hospital bed towards the elevator. She pressed the up button and waited for the elevator doors to open. As she did, she noticed a groggy Katie started to wake up.

"Ugghhh." Katie moaned.

The doors to the elevator opened. Meredith pushed Katie's hospital bed into the elevator and pressed the button she hoped would be where the CT room was.

"Hello Katie. How are you feeling?"

Katie blinked a few times before actually opening her eyes and looking at Meredith. "Who are you? And where am I?"

"You are at Seattle Grace Hospital. You were having a grand mal seizure. I am taking you up to get a CT." Meredith explained.

Katie nodded her head. "Okay."

The elevator doors opened. Meredith quickly pressed another button before Katie would see what floor they actually ended up on. They ended up on the morgue floor.

Katie looked at Meredith who was frantically pressing another button. "What are you doing?"

"I accidentally pressed the wrong button as we were coming up. I saw that you were waking up and I guess I must have pressed the wrong button." Meredith rambled a little bit.

As the elevator doors opened up again, Katie noticed the nervousness on Meredith's face as she pushed Katie's hospital bed out of the elevator.

"You're lost."

"I'm not lost. How are you feeling?"

"How do you think I'm feeling? I'm missing my pageant."

"You're missing you pageant?" Meredith repeated.

"This is my year to win. I was in the top 10 in the first two rounds." Katie said as Meredith pushed her around the corner. Hoping and praying that she would find the CT room and that this would all be over soon.

Meredith just ignored Katie as she kept on ranting about missing her pageant. They reached the end of the hallway, and Meredith noticed that the CT was nowhere to be found. Still ignoring Katie, she turned around and went to the other side of the hallway.

"Hello? You are so lost. What are you? New?" Katie remarked.

But Meredith still ignored her.

"I twisted my ankle when I was practicing baton. I do rhythmic gymnastics. Which is like really cool. Nobody else does it." Katie ranted on. "Anyways, I tripped over my ribbon and I didn't get stuck with someone who was this clueless. And that was like a nurse."

Meredith went back to the elevator and went to another floor. As the elevator doors opened, she felt relieved that she was in the right place. She quickly handed Katie off the people in the CT room and handed them her chart. Meredith quickly got out of there and headed to the lunch room, so no one would ask her to do anything else.

She entered the lunch room and grabbed a tray. She got some food and found where the rest of her fellow interns were sitting. She quickly sat down and quickly remarked, "Katie Bryce is a pain in my ass."

She looked up at her fellow interns who just had a plain shocked look on their faces. But they weren't looking at Meredith; they were looking at the person who was behind her. Meredith turned around to see her mother standing there.

"Dr. Grey, may I have a word with you please."

"Absolutely." Meredith turned to put her apple down she had in her hand, then got up to follow her mother to an area on the other side of the cafeteria.

"What are you doing, Meredith?" Ellis exclaimed.

"I'm eating, Dr. Grey. Is that a problem?"

"I told you if you want to be an extraordinary doctor, you don't have time to eat, sit, or lay down. You barely have time to sleep. I raised you to be extraordinary. Especially an extraordinary doctor. Not ordinary like all these other interns." Ellis pointed to the table where Meredith was just sitting at.

Meredith crossed her arms across her chest. "Well, what am I supposed to do? I took my patient up for a CT. And they said they would bring her down to her room when they were finished.

Ellis looked at her daughter straight in the eye. "Reread her chart until you have everything memorized. Go and push the lab people to get your CT scans faster. Go through every possibility you can think of that could be wrong with your patient. Rule out the ones you know isn't a factor with what is wrong with her. And if you need a consult, like a neuro consult, go find Dr. Shepherd if you need to."

"Fine."

Meredith went back to the table she was sitting at and grabbed her tray. She angrily threw it in the trash and pushed through the lunch room doors, heading to Katie's room.

Meanwhile, back in the lunch room, Cristina said, "Whoa, mommy and daughter fight."

Izzy almost spit out the water she had in her mouth.

She quickly swallowed it before asking in disbelief, "Mommy and daughter fight? As in she is Ellis Grey's daughter?"

George and Cristina nodded their head simultaneously.

"Yeah, she told us after you left to do your rectal exams. But it doesn't look like they have a good relationship." George said.

Back in Katie's room, Meredith was rereading Katie's chart and going over the CT scans. She couldn't find anything that was causing her seizures. She put the CT scans back in the folder and went across the hall to the nurses' station.

"Do you know where I can find Dr. Shepherd?"

The nurse quickly looked up from her phone call, "Try underneath the cat walk."

"Thanks."

Meredith heading towards the cat walk, but took the elevator down a level. Once she stepped off of the elevator, she found Dr. Bailey. She quickly ran up to her and tapped Bailey on her shoulder.

"Dr. Bailey, do you know where Dr. Shepherd is?"

Bailey finished writing down something in another patients chart before looking up. She scanned the room looking for Dr. Shepherd, before spotting him. "He is right there. Wait, why are you going to see Dr. Shepherd?"

"I can't figure out why Katie is having her seizures, so I was told to ask Dr. Shepherd for a consult."

"Who told you that?" Bailey asked, wondering why they wouldn't tell her to go see her resident first.

"Attending gastroenterology surgeon, Dr. Grey." Meredith replied.

Bailey's face went from confusion to understanding. "Your mother."

Meredith nodded.

"Alright, go talk to Shepherd."

Meredith replied a quick 'thanks' to Bailey before walking up to Shepherd.

"Dr. Shepherd?" Meredith asked, confirming she got the right person. She also didn't want to completely interrupt his conversation he was having with other surgeons.

Dr. Shepherd looked at Meredith, "Yes?"

"Hello, I'm Dr. Meredith Grey and I need you for a consult."

Shepherd held out his hand and said, "Ah, Ellis Grey's daughter. I'm Dr. Derek Shepherd. Just give me a second and I'll be with you for your consult."

Meredith quickly shook his hand and took a few steps back, giving him some privacy to finish his conversation he was having. As she was waiting, she took out the scans to get a look at them again. Hoping that she didn't miss anything. She didn't want to seem like an idiot intern to the head of neuro.

"Alright, are these the CT scans?" a voice said coming next to her.

Meredith looked over at Derek. "Yeah, I just getting another look at them, making sure I didn't miss anything and seem like an idiot."

"Eh, even if you did. I wouldn't think you were an idiot. Everyone makes mistakes. Even more on your first day." Derek said with a small smile. "But you didn't miss anything because there is nothing here."

"I just can't figure out why she is having her seizures. I did have one thought, but it's a very rare possibility." Meredith said.

Derek let go of the scans and let Meredith put them back in the folder. "Even if it's rare, it's a possibility. What is it?"

Meredith sighed. "Well, my patient, Katie Bryce, she was telling me how she tripped over her ribbon and twisted her ankle. But she did in fact fall, and it was so minor that the treating doctor didn't even think to mention it to Dr. Yang. Even though there are no signs of an aneurism, what if she does have one?"

"Alright, but you know the chances of bursting an aneurism? One in a million. Literally."

Meredith put her head down, understanding where Derek was coming from.

"Let's go."

Meredith looked up at Derek. "Wha- Where are we going?"

"To find out if Katie is one in a million."

Meredith and Derek were standing in a room, waiting for the scans of Katie's head to come up. This time they took a specific scan of where Katie bumped her head. Derek was standing next to the lab guy, who was sitting in a chair, going over Katie's chart. Meredith was just standing next to Derek waiting.

"There it is." The lab guy pointed to the screen.

Derek almost dropped Katie's chart at the sight. Meredith was right. She did have an aneurism and it did burst. "I'll be damned. It's small, but it's there." Derek turned to Meredith, "Nice job, Dr. Grey."

Derek looked to the lab tech guy and said, "Get her back in her room and prepped for surgery. I am going to go inform the parents on what is happening."

The lab guy nodded and Derek walked out of the room with Meredith closely behind him. He stopped at the nurses' station to fill a few things out in Katie's chart. "What should I go do now, Dr. Shepherd?"

Derek looked up at Meredith. "You will be scrubbing in, so go and find your resident and inform them on what you are doing and I will see you in surgery."

"Wait, what? I'm only an intern. My first day as an intern. I couldn't possibly scrub in on this advanced of procedure."

"Dr. Grey, if it weren't for you, Katie wouldn't have long to live if we never found out what was happening. You saved her life and you deserve to scrub in. Now, I will see you in the OR." Derek said. He handed the chart to the nurse and left.

Meredith turned around and was trying to find Bailey when she bumped into Cristina.

"You will never guess what happened. O'Malley got picked to perform his first surgery. Apparently, Dr. Burke thinks he has the most potential. Can you believe O'Malley got picked? I should've got picked. Anyways, where are you going? The OR is this way if you want to watch George fail."

Meredith looked at Cristina, a little upset. "George is one of us. He needs the support, not his fellow interns to bet on if when and how he fails. And I'm not going to watch George do the surgery, but you will have to tell me what happens."

"Well if you aren't going to watch George, then what are you going to do?"

"First, I am trying to find Dr. Bailey. And second, Dr. Shepherd is letting me scrub in on a cerebral hemorrhage. So, do you know where Dr. Bailey is?" Meredith started walking again, trying to spot Bailey.

Cristina grabbed Meredith's arm. "Whoa, what do you mean Dr. Shepherd is letting you scrub in on a cerebral hemorrhage?"

"He said if it weren't for me, that if I founded out that when Katie fell and twisted her ankle, burst the aneurism she had, Katie would have eventually died with all the seizures she is having. He said I deserved it and told me he would see me in the OR. I wasn't going to fight him on letting me scrub in on an advanced procedure." She told Cristina.

The two started walking again. "If I knew I was going to get to scrub in, I would've started looking for answers. Damn. Oh, and Dr. Bailey is in the scrub room, giving a speech to George on about he better not fail because if he does, he is going to make his resident and an attending look like idiots for letting him in on the surgery."

Meredith nodded. She turned around and headed towards the scrub room to find Bailey.

Once she entered the scrub room, she heard Bailey saying, "-because if you screw this up, not only will you disappoint me and make Br. Burke look like an idiot, you will be on scut for a week. We clear?"

"Yes ma'am."

Meredith tapped Bailey on the shoulder.

"Uh, Dr. Bailey. Dr. Shepherd told to find you and tell you that I am scrubbing in on a cerebral hemorrhage."

Bailey turned around in shock.

"Now, why on earth would he let a first day intern scrub in on a cerebral hemorrhage?" Bailey asked.

George was behind Bailey, scrubbing. He was trying hard not to listen to the conversation, but the glances he keeps giving to Meredith, show otherwise.

"I have no idea why. That's why I asked. He said I deserved it. That if I didn't find out Katie had an aneurism that had burst; she would have lived a short life." Meredith told Bailey.

Bailey crossed her arms across her chest. "Would you mind if I go and confirm this with Dr. Shepherd?"

"Not at all. If you would like to talk to me again. I will be in here scrubbing, getting ready for the cerebral hemorrhage."

As Bailey left, George turned to Meredith.

"I would kill to be in your place right now. You are probably to luckiest person right now. Getting to scrub in on a cerebral hemorrhage."

Meredith looked at George as she rinsed of the soap. "Me? Lucky? George, you are the intern that gets to perform a surgery on your very first day. That amazing. All I am doing is observing. Something anyone can do up in the gallery."

"Yeah, but you will be up close. Looking through the micro scope. That is nothing compared to being in the gallery."

Meredith put a towel over her hands, as did George.

"I doubt that he would let me near the microscope. But anyways, I have to get to OR 2. Good luck. I told Cristina to tell me what happens."

George was walking towards the door, but stopped and turned to Meredith. "Thanks. I hope you have fun with your cerebral hemorrhage."

Meredith followed George out the door, but the two went in opposite directions. As Meredith entered OR 2, she dried her hands and then stood on the opposite of the OR.

After Derek got his gloves on, he said, "Alright everybody. It's a beautiful day to save lives."

In the gallery, watching George getting ready to start the surgery, an intern said, "20 says he faints."

"Oh, I'll take that." Izzy said.

"25 says he doesn't even complete the first cut."

"30 says he doesn't even know where the appendix is." A bunch of interns started to say.

Cristina started to think about what Meredith said. "50 says he pulls the whole thing off."

Everyone looked at Cristina, but when Burke said, "Alright, let's begin." they turned their attention to George in the OR.

It was half way through the procedure of the cerebral hemorrhage when Derek looked up and caught Meredith's eye. He moved his head to the side, indicating for her to come and stand next to him. Even though Meredith had her mask on, he knew he saw a smile. Meredith came next to him and put her eyes up to the microscope.

The procedure was finally done and the two were in the scrub room together.

"Thanks for letting come up and watch the surgery through the microscope."

Derek smiled. "Dr. Grey, you deserved it. Now, I have a question for you."

"Okay. Shoot."

Derek finished drying his hands before asking Meredith, "Are you going to Joe's tonight?"

"Isn't that the bar across the street?" Meredith asked, now drying her hands.

"It is. You did an amazing job today, and I would like to reward you with a drink."

"I thought my reward was getting to scrub in on the surgery?" Meredith smiled.

Derek gave a small laugh. "It was, but if you are going to Joe's I'd also like to buy you a drink. So, what do you say?"

"I'd love to, but after just having my first 48 hour shift, I want to go home and sleep."

Derek nodded in understanding. "I get it. Rain check?"

"We'll see." Meredith said before walking out of the scrub room and towards the intern's locker room.

As she entered the intern's locker room, she saw Cristina getting changed. "Hey, how did George's Surgery go?"

Cristina held up the money she won and smiled. "It went just fine."

"I thought I said that it wasn't nice to bet on when and how he was going to fail." Meredith opened up her locker and grabbed her clothes out and started to change.

Cristina put the money away and looked back up at Meredith." I didn't. I bet 50 that he would pull the whole thing off. And I won. He did the entire thing. Bambi not only got the first surgery, but he also won me lots of cash."

Meredith was putting on her pants as she looked at Cristina in confusion. "Bambi?"

"Eh, I don't know. That's what an intern behind me started to call him."

As Meredith finished changing, she sat on the bench, next to Cristina. "You will never guess what happened before I got here."

"Oh yeah. How did the cerebral hemorrhage go?"

"It went fine. Katie is in recovery. Anyways, Dr. Shepherd asked me if he could buy me a drink tonight at Joe's."

"Whoa, McDreamy did what?" A voice said. Meredith and Cristina looked over at Izzy, who was opening her locker.

Cristina scoffed. "McDreamy?"

Izzy nodded, "Yeah that is what all the residents call him. Anyways, what did you say? Please tell me you said yes."

Meredith smiled at Izzy. "Well, since you said please. I said yes."

Izzy groaned. "How could turn down McDreamy? The head of neuro? I mean he asked if he could buy you a drink. How could you say no?"

"Well for one, I'm tired. I haven't slept in 48 hours. Two, he's an attending and I am an intern. And three, my mother would screeching frenzy if she found out _unprofessional _I was." Meredith put quotes around unprofessional.

"Iz, you don't understand. If you had a mother like mine, then I would consider what you have to say, otherwise, you really don't get it."

"Alright. Whatever. Who's going to Joe's?" Izzy asked to no one unparticular.

Cristina raised her hand. "I am. I need to get at least one drink in me. It's been a long day and I need to unwind a little then go to sleep."

Meredith laughed.

"Dr. Grey. Can I speak with you for a minute?" A voice asked.

Meredith turned to find her mother in the doorway of the intern's locker room.

"Yeah, hold on one second."

Ellis nodded and retreated from the door way.

"Dr. Grey? She doesn't even call you by your first name?" Izzy asked.

"I told you Izzy. Unless you have a mother like mine, you don't understand." Meredith said before grabbing her things and heading out of the locker room.

She found her mother on the other side of the hall, filling out something in another patients chart.

Meredith walked up to her mother. "You wanted to speak with me?"

"Yes. Come into my office."

Meredith nodded and followed her mother towards her office. General surgeons don't usually get their own office, but when you have the person who created the Grey method, you will do what she wants. And Ellis wanted an office of her own.

Once they reached her office, Ellis sat in her desk chair. She pointed to the visitors chair and said, "Have a seat."

Meredith pursed her lips and nodded.

"What's going on, mom?" Meredith asked, getting a little impatient.

Ellis put down the chart she had in her hands and grabbed a letter that was set aside on her desk. "I got an invitation to be a surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota."

Meredith grabbed the letter and scanned it quickly. "Oh."

She handed the letter back to her mother and looked up. "Well, are you going to go? I mean you only started her a few months ago."

"I know. But I have been thinking. I went here for my 7 years of residency and I don't want to be here for the rest of my life. And at the Mayo Clinic, there will be no distractions."

"Distractions? I'm not a distraction. Am I?"

"If I stayed here, I would need to keep my eye on you, but you aren't the only person who is distracting me."

"One, I am like 27-years old, so you don't need to keep an eye on me. Two, who is this other distraction?"

Ellis sighed. "Meredith, it is none of your business. Anyways, I have decided to move to Minnesota and continue as an attending there."

"You've decided?"

Ellis nodded. "All I have to do is inform the Mayo Clinic that I will accept their invitation and I just need to let the board know about my decision and then it is final."

Meredith stood up. "Well, as you're happy mom. Then I do not mind. I hope you have fun in Minnesota."

"Meredith, wait."

"What?"

Ellis pulled out a few papers. "I need you to sign these."

Meredith's eye brows furrowed as she sat back down. "Sign what?"

"I had my lawyer draw up some things and I want to sign the house and everything here in Seattle that I own to you.

"Wait, what?"

"I assume that I will be staying in Minnesota until I die, so there will be no reason for me to keep the things I own in Seattle that I know I won't need anymore."

"Are you sure?"

Ellis nodded. "Absolutely."

Meredith sighed. "Alright."

Meredith grabbed the papers from her mother's hands and signed them.

"Is that all?"

"Yes it is. That's all I needed. I assume I will see you when I get home."

Meredith shook her head. "Actually a few other interns wanted me to come with them to Joe's. At first I wasn't going to go, but now I think I need it."

"Uh huh." Ellis said, not really paying attention to Meredith anymore.

Meredith sighed and walked out of her office. She went to her car and drove it across the street to Joe's. Hoping that Derek would still buy her that drink that she most desperately needed now.

Once she arrived to Joe's, she looked around hoping to find Derek, but when she didn't, she went and sat down on the opposite side of the bar from her fellow interns.

"I thought you weren't coming to Joe's tonight."

Meredith turned to fin Derek sitting next to her. She smiled. "I wasn't going to, but then mother told me some things and well, I really need a drink now."

Derek sat down next to her. "Can I still buy you a drink?"

"Sure."

Derek smiled. "What so you want?"

"Tequila. I need tequila."

Derek laughed. "Alright. One tequila coming up."

* * *

_Chapter Two is in progress. _


End file.
